Review Summary: And so you left us, jaded and gaunt, some September. Wilted with the seasons, but hidden inside the delusion.
The lyrical excerpt above is taken from The Night and the Silent Water, the second track on Opeth's sophomore effort, Morningrise. The song was written in memoriam of frontman Mikael Åkerfeldt's then recently passed grandfather. It's pieces like this that remind me and many fans of this band as to why we follow them so fervently, why we defend them so vehemently. It's because they put together some of the most emotionally resonant progressive music around, all the while being heavy enough to stand shoulder to shoulder with, and debatably even above, death metal giants like Death and Obituary.
Morningrise kicks off with the best song Opeth had written thus far in their career, and one of the best songs they would ever write, Advent. This is the first song composed by the band that I would call a masterwork, and the first of many. It's abrasive, bold, it flows through each part gorgeously, and each part is just as ear catching as the last. It's the earliest testament to how brilliant this band is and would become as time went on, and is my personal favorite track on the album.
The Night and the Silent Water serves to contrast the breakneck first track as a slower, more somber mid-tempo affair. Aside from the lyrical deftness and tact that was mentioned above, the song is just plain gorgeous instrumentally, as it is another piece that goes over ten minutes and each part is as interesting and beautiful as the last.
Nectar is really the only song that I take any issue with on the album, in that it's just somewhat uninteresting in comparison to the rest of the album. It goes on a bit too long, really only having one or two interesting parts. Far from bad, and far from ruining the album in any way, but it could've done with a trim.
And thus we arrive at Black Rose Immortal, the longest song in Opeth's discography to this day, and one that fills every single second of its 20 minute runtime with something to latch on to. No single selection is anything less than virtuosic, and if it were to be trimmed in any way, it would lose just that much of its brilliance. I cannot even begin to fathom how difficult it must be to write a 20 minute song wherein the listener is not lost for a second, but Opeth succeed in this effort with flying colors.
The album closes with To Bid You Farewell, a haunting and beautiful acoustic ballad that breaks up the crushing heaviness of the rest of the album, and ends it on a perfect note. It also features Mikael Åkerfeldt's best vocal performance to date, as it is sung almost completely cleanly, giving him the opportunity to show just how incredible his vocal chops are. In the final third, the song completely bursts open into a crushingly heavy riff, fulfilling what the song has been building to this whole time. And then it comes back down, finishing the album with the somber acoustics utilized in the first two thirds. It's a gorgeous end to a remarkable sophomore effort.
The fact that Morningrise is not Opeth's best album, in my opinion, is truly remarkable. A lesser band would have hit their peak here and never reached these heights again. But not Opeth. They weren't even close to done with us.
Favorite Tracks: Advent, Black Rose Immortal, The Night and the Silent Water
Least Favorite Tracks: Nectar
